Sailing the Epic, what time can one REALLY board?

[samiams2]

Sailing the epic on 1/9. Spending the night in Miami and would like to get to the ship ASAP. Ship departs at 4pm but my TA says that the boarding doesn't begin till 12:30. 3 1/2 hrs doesn't seem like long enough to board 4100ppl. Thinking I could get on early? Anyone have any real world experience? I'm thinking of getting there at 9? Sitting at hotel or in cruise terminal isn't much different and like I said I would like to get onboard ASAP. Any advice from "real world experience" would be appreciated.

 

Thx in advance.

 

Sam

[L3GWG]

You should be qble to board earlier than 12-30 but remember that the ship has to offload the previous passengers before you can get on and all the work that takes place to have it ready for the new passengers is amazing. Be patient you will get on board

 

 

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[sdmike]

Generally by 11:30, if not sooner. It depends on a lot of factors, but seems that most reports are boarding well before noon

[Demonyte]

Arriving at 9am will bring you in the middle of the rush of disembarking passengers and leave you waiting for a long time. I'd recommend arriving around 10am or so, that way you don't have to at least stand there waiting and you'll get to the waiting area amongst the first ones. Last February we arrived to port around 11am and got onboard in boarding group 4 - which meant about 15 minutes wait after the first passengers got onboard.

 

Regardless of ship and port, on all NCL ships the actual boarding starts usually before noon (IF there are no delays), in my experience usually closer to noon than 11am.

[anandaindonesia]

Thank you, Demonyte.

Good advise.

 

Michael

via Tapatalk. sorry for typo.

[samiams2]

Awesome! Thank you for the quality answers. Just to clarify, i'm not motivated by sheer impatience My DW and I are planning on staying on the ship all week, and are hoping to get Posh passes, if available. Plus I want to get that UBP fired up ASAP

[BlueJai]

Awesome! Thank you for the quality answers. Just to clarify, i'm not motivated by sheer impatience My DW and I are planning on staying on the ship all week, and are hoping to get Posh passes, if available. Plus I want to get that UBP fired up ASAP

 

We boarded on January 4th and that was our #1 thing to do as well. We got to the port around 10:30ish. There was a ton of people still waiting for taxi's etc but a porter got our luggage onto the cart. There was already a small line forming inside the terminal waiting for security to open. I think they must have started around 11:00 or maybe a bit earlier - allowing people needing assistance and some others (perhaps Suite people) on. We were through security and checked in fairly quickly and were given a Group 2 card. We were onboard by 11:30 and headed to Guest Services. Between the wait in the line up and the processing time, it took about 25 minutes to get the Posh Passes.

 

It seems that if one agent is getting passes, then all other agents have to wait until he/she is finished before they can process passes for the next guest.

 

Good luck! I hope you get them, it was definitely one of the best parts of our trip.

[samiams2]

We boarded on January 4th and that was our #1 thing to do as well. We got to the port around 10:30ish. There was a ton of people still waiting for taxi's etc but a porter got our luggage onto the cart. There was already a small line forming inside the terminal waiting for security to open. I think they must have started around 11:00 or maybe a bit earlier - allowing people needing assistance and some others (perhaps Suite people) on. We were through security and checked in fairly quickly and were given a Group 2 card. We were onboard by 11:30 and headed to Guest Services. Between the wait in the line up and the processing time, it took about 25 minutes to get the Posh Passes.

 

 

 

It seems that if one agent is getting passes, then all other agents have to wait until he/she is finished before they can process passes for the next guest.

 

 

 

Good luck! I hope you get them, it was definitely one of the best parts of our trip.

 

 

Don't mean to derail but Finding someone who is human, alive & actually have bought the posh pass is like spotting Bigfoot these days, so quick question: What did the posh passes run u? I have heard anywhere from $5/day(can't believe its that cheap) to $12/day? U buy the whole week or daily? We r staying on the ship(no port) so can't decide if I should buy whole week or just sea days. Any advice?